


Dark Secrets of the Soul

by rosa_himmelblau



Category: Twin Peaks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:34:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29356545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosa_himmelblau/pseuds/rosa_himmelblau
Summary: After Bob.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Dark Secrets of the Soul

**Author's Note:**

> _"And though we know each other better when we explore,  
>  Sometimes I wish  
> Often I wish  
> That I never knew some of those secrets of yours."_

When it was all over, when the evil—no, Evil, this was the real deal—when it was gone from Cooper, and Cooper was just a man exhausted by battle and shattered by his own actions, Harry took him home.

Cooper didn't resist. He leaned on Harry a little, he let Hawk help him into the car. He was quiet as a child who has been bad and suddenly learned that misbehavior has consequences, and twice in the short drive Harry asked him if he was asleep. "No." And then to soften the single syllable, "I'm awake, Harry."

Harry resisted the urge to ask if he was all right. It was a stupid question.

When they got into the house, Harry offered to build a fire. It was certainly chilly enough to warrant one. But Cooper said no, again, then to himself, "I may never be able to look at an open fire again."

Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he went and got a blanket, a warm one he saved for the coldest of winter nights, and he draped it around Cooper and then he sat down next to him on the sofa and got under the blanket with him.

"You should go to bed," Cooper protested as he did this, but Harry ignored him, put his arm around him instead. "You should go to bed," Cooper said again.

"I'm not tired," Harry said, yawning to prove he was lying.

"Do you know—is there a holy man of some kind around here?"

"You mean like a priest?" Harry asked.

"Yes, a priest would be good. Someone I can talk to, someone I can—I need to get these things out of my head." He sounded a little frantic, and Harry held him tighter.

"Bob-things?" Harry asked, surprised when Cooper shook his head.

"No, all of that is gone, all of—whatever he—gone, this is me, Harry, all of the—" He stopped for a minute, then went on a little more composedly. "You know how after it snows, and they plow all the snow into one spot, and then the snow melts, you're left with a big pile of garbage, rocks—detritus. That, that's what's in my head right now, and I need—"

"The ocean does that too," Harry told him gently. "Washes things ashore and leaves them for us to clean up or trip over. You need to talk to someone you can trust—"

"No! No, Harry, I **trust** you. But I can't—they're all so—just the awful things I've done, they're all there, it was like he was a magnet, attracting all of my evil, all the things I'm ashamed of, that I've locked away or buried, forgotten, pretended to forget, they're all, yes, out there waiting for me to trip on, I need to purge them—"

"You think you'll shock me? That I won't—" Harry didn't say _won't love you anymore._ He stumbled, said instead, "That I won't be your friend, want to be your friend?"

"We don't know much about each other," Cooper said. "Really, we don't—"

"I can call someone," Harry said, letting go. This wasn't about him, this was about what Cooper needed. "I can call—"

But Cooper started talking to him.

*

There was nothing very—nothing you could call evil, even with a small e. Nothing very surprising, as strange and uncommon as Cooper himself seemed to Harry. There was nothing that could possibly tarnish this the brightness that was Cooper. But something changed. Cooper couldn't seem to let himself meet Harry's eyes, as though he was afraid of what he would see reflected back. He seemed to hold himself a little more distant from Harry, seemed to be trying to stand straighter. Harry wanted to tell him it was all right, but he had said that innumerable times already. All he could do was carry Cooper's secrets and try to keep the distance between them from growing too wide.

**Author's Note:**

> This is ipod prompt fiction. I'm fuzzy on the details, except that I was given the song lyric to inspire a story.
> 
> This is the story.


End file.
